When to flick or soft topspin against choppers

Hi coach,

With choppers, I tend to return their chop/backspin on low balls with a backspin and only when it is safe (high balls) I topspin or flick. Despite that sometimes the ball goes in the net or outside.

Some attackers same level as me would simply keep their topspin style game against choppers (even on receiving a backspin serve or when there is a heavy low backspin) and barely chop back. They eventually lose the game against strong choppers.

Do you systematically topspin on heavy long backspin low and flick against their short low backspin. 

In short , do you recommend a strong attacker during a rally to consistently flick on short backspin or topspin on long against backspin/ choppers and don't bother returning a heavy backspin with a backspin.

Rama

Hi Rama,

I think eventually you are aiming to be able to attack or topspin most backspin balls from a defender.  However you can push some balls when you are not sure of a spin.  You should try to learn to be able to topspin many of the balls.  There is no long backspin balls that you can't topspin.  It is just learning how to deal with the different types of spins.